Music by GIACOMO PUCCINI
Libretto by LUIGI ILLICA and GIUSEPPE GIACOSA
PATRICK REYNOLDS conductor
GARY BRIGGLE stage director
MATTHEW VICKERS* tenor – Rodolfo
KASIA BOROWIEC soprano – Mimi
ZULIMAR LÓPEZ-HERNÁNDEZ soprano – Musetta
KENNETH STAVERT baritone – Marcello
DE’RON McDANIEL* baritone – Schaunard
VINCENT GRANA bass – Colline
THOMAS HAMMONS bass-baritone – Benoit/Alcindoro
MARK HANSON tenor – Parpignol
BEN FLANDERS bass-baritone – Sergeant
MICHAEL TAINT bass – Customs Officer
*Dayton Opera debut
Love blossoms amid the revels and hardships of a group of young Bohemians renting a Parisian garret – a budding painter, an impractical poet, a philosopher, and a musician. While the artists struggle with inspiration, cold, finances, and their crotchety landlord, fate arrives for Rodolfo, the poet, in the gentle form of Mimi, a seamstress whose candle has blown out. What ensues is sheer opera magic, studded with arias you’ll recognize: Rodolfo’s “Che gelida manina” (What a cold little hand), Mimi’s lovely introduction, “Mi chiamano Mimi” (I’m called Mimi), and the pair’s ecstatic duet, “O soave fanciulla” (Oh lovely girl), as Rodolfo declares his dawning love. Soon you’ll meet uninhibited Musetta, whose uses her famously seductive waltz song, “Quando me’n vo’” (When I go), as a golden opportunity to fan the flame of her former lover.
The story, adapted from Murger’s novel “Scenes from Bohemian Life,” was most recently borrowed for the Broadway musical, “Rent.” Come prepared to laugh and cry, and whet your appetite for all the festive activity at Café Momus. You’ll leave knowing why La Boheme, remains Puccini’s most popular opera and ranks in the world’s top three opera favorites.
Photo: Duane Tinkey/Des Moines Metro Opera
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